music.wikisort.org - Researcher

Komal Kothari was an Indian folk artist and classical singer.[1][2]

Career

Kothari's research resulted in his development of the study of a number of areas of folklore. In particular, he made contributions to the study of musical instruments, oral traditions and puppetry.[3]

He was also a patron of Langa and Manganiyar folk music, the latter of which translates to 'beggars' and is currently used as a debasing term for Merasi.[4] ^{[citation needed]} He was the first to record them and helped shem out of their traditional regions.[5] To this end, he also founded the magazine 'Prerna'.

Kothari founded the Rupayan Sansthan with Vijaydan Detha at Borunda village in Rajasthan, an institute that documents Rajasthani folk-lore, arts and music, and spent most of his career at the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Academy. He died from cancer in April 2004.

Awards and honours

Padma Shri

Padma Bhushan

Rajasthan Ratna award 2012

Legacy

A 1979 documentary film on his ethnomusicology work, and another titled Komal Da, on his life and works, are now archived at Columbia University Libraries.[3]

Works

• Monograph on Langas: a folk musician caste of Rajasthan. 1960.
• Folk musical instruments of Rajasthan: a folio. Rajasthan Institute of Folklore, 1977.
• Gods of the Byways. Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. 1982. ISBN 0-905836-28-6.
• Rajasthan: The Living Traditions,Prakash Book Depot. 2000. ISBN 81-7234-031-1.
• Life and works of Padma Bhushan Shri Komal Kothari (1929-2004), by Komal Kothari, National Folklore Support Centre, NFSC. 2004.
• Bards, ballads and boundaries: an ethnographic atlas of music traditions in West Rajasthan, by Daniel Neuman, Shubha Chaudhuri, Komal Kothari. Seagull, 2007. ISBN 1-905422-07-5.

Further reading

• Rajasthan: An Oral History — Conversations with Komal Kothari, by Rustom Bharucha. Penguin India. 2003. ISBN 0-14-302959-2.

See also

• Musical Instruments of Rajasthan

References

External links

• Life and works of Shri Komal Kothari National Folklore Support Centre
• Conversation with Komal Kothari

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